By
ISYAKU BALA IBRAHIM
Key
words:
Difference, Eganmagan, Egancin, Idiom,
Language, Nupe, and Proverbs
1.0 ABSTRACT
The problems of ambiguity of similar
or identical words occur in different languages across the world, and efforts
are constantly made to get them in the right perspective. It is worst when
problem of misunderstanding or wrong word usage occur. It is more critical and
fundamental when it transcends from the ordinary speakers on the street to the
academic environment or intellectual space. Therefore, by going through their roots
to understand the morphological arrangement or structure enabled us to get the
exact meanings of these figurative words: Eganmagan
(Proverb) and Egancìn (Idiom) which will
lead to a proper understanding, and clear the cloud surrounding their current usage
in communication among Nupe language speakers in the Northern part of Nigeria.
2.0 INTRODUCTION
A language is made
up of whole lot of things which grows along with its speakers over a period of
time. It is natural that one expects some fundamental changes along this growth
process. This developmental process attains maturity with the ability to give
right meanings to all things in its environment both physical and abstract. Once
this is established, it will prevent misleading a whole generation to something
that is not. Therefore, situating every word, phrase, clause, sentence rightly
is the most important thing one can easily do to assist in instituting this
salient fact.
All languages
of the world make use of proverbs and idioms to communicate among its speakers.
Thus, the more a language uses them, the more it shows the depth of the
language, and particularly if the speakers can use it to resolve a given
problem through the use of carefully guided phrases or sentences that are
factual, or make the dialogue among people more meaningful and beneficial.
Figures of speech such as proverbs traditionally have special place in the
minds of people. It has a way of satisfying, arresting, directing the
conversation in favour of the eloquent speaker(s) as others in the group are
persuaded to listen to a superior usage of these grammatical devices as it adds
colour and beauty to the whole dialogue.
Nupe language
is the language whose speakers are found majorly in the North-Central Part of
Nigeria. It is one of the major languages in Nigeria out of over 350 the
country is proud of. The actual population of the speakers in the country
cannot be tentatively ascertained owing to the fact that recently concluded
head-counts do not include the ethnicity/tribe in its questionnaires. Though,
it is estimated that the population of the speakers are in the range of three
to four million throughout the country.
However, there
is an age-long challenge on the use of these metaphorical words in Nupeland among
the language speakers which also affected the works of early and current Nupe
anthropologists, translators, evangelists, and researchers. It is the challenge
of distinguishing between these two all important components of a language: Eganmagan and Egancìn. Regrettably, they are interchangeably used currently. In
some instances, Eganmagan is often referred to as Egancìn vice versa.
So, this paper aimed at situating rightly and removes all barriers causing
confusion in the use of the two similar but distinctive sayings.
3.0 MEANINGS OF EGANMAGAN
AND EGANCÌN
It is imperative to know the meanings
of these words which will go a long way to aid in really getting the difference
embedded in them.
Eganmagan – ganmagan / gamaga
(proverb) and its plural (eganmaganzhi /
ganmaganzhi) is a well known phrase
or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally true in Nupe language as used by its speakers. It
originates from the Latin word proverbium
(Wikipedia -12/9/2013). It is also a short
statement of wisdom or advice that is
transmitted from generation to generation and
has passed into general use. It
is a metaphorical sentence that embodies a common observation. It usually summarizes thoughts or long
sentence or phrase into an appreciable short form. A proverb is a short or
pithy remark or story designed to convey a moral or practical message like the
eponymous book of proverbs in the Bible which, in many chapters have one or two
verse statements of this sort, "Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs
than a fool in his folly" (Bible -NIV, Proverb 17.12).
Therefore, they are wise
sayings well spoken among Nupes. They educate, entertain, and teach morality
and good conscience (Ibrahim, x.2009).
Egancìn
/ gancìn / gacìn / (Idiom)
derived from Latin idioma meaning
‘special property.’ It is an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. It is defined as a group of words whose meaning
is different from the meanings of the individual words expressed (Oxford
Advance learner’s Dictionary 720.2005).
4.0 THE
MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURES OF EGANMAGAN AND
EGANCIN
To better understand what these mean
in Nupe language, it is important we understand the structures of the words
involved. It is an aspect of grammar that could help resolve the problem of
their usage generally. By getting the words in their morphological structure
that the distinction of the two words can be clearly noticed.
Eganmagan
There are four morphemes in the above word and this is its structure:
Ø /E/ - prefix
Ø /gan/ - ‘talk’ or ‘Speech’ or ‘statement’
Ø /ma /má/
- ‘sweet’ or ‘pleasant’ or ‘nice’
Ø /gan/ - ‘say’
or ‘mention’ or ‘speak’
Eganmagan → /E/
+ /gan/ + /ma/ + /gan/
(Proverb)
→ (Prefix) +
(Statement) + (Pleasant)
+ (Speak/say)
N/Noun/ → N/nominalizer/ + V/verb/ + A /adjective/ +
V/verb/
From the analysis of the morphemes and
the grammatical structure of the word, one can deduce literally that Eganmagan is a general
statement that is agreeable or pleasant. Technically, it is a statement that
advices, warns, or guides toward solving a problem among the speakers.
Egancìn
Egancìn has three morphemes and the word can
be parsed as seen below:
Egancìn → /E/ +
/gan/ + /cìn/
(Idiom)
→ (prefix)
+ (say) +
(Concentrated / Broader / Intense)
N/noun/
→ N/norminalizer/ +
V/verb/ + A/adjective/
Therefore, it
is a statement that is very intense in its form and meaning. It is intense
because its meaning is broadly hidden.
5.0 EXAMPLES OF EGANMAGAN AND EGANCÌN
Here are some
interesting popular sayings and proverbs in Nupe language:
>>Batán na à wu eza na, etsan wun è man boci
ò.
Translation: The disease that will kill a
patient will continue to laugh at the herbalist or the doctor. (A problem that
defiled all solutions should simply be left alone).
>>Ka éná bici gunni è cefo nikin.
Translation: Even a four-legged game does
sometimes fall. (‘No one is above mistake.’)
>>Cincin nna è tàn gi ò.
Translation: A mother’s love does have an
effect on her child. (The love between a
child and his parent is unquantifiable).
>> Eza
è kpetso Sòkó nikin nyi à.
Translation: Whoever leans on God will not fall. (People
should depend and have total trust in God at all times, because He does not
fail).
>> Zana à kún na, wun kún Sòkó à.
Translation:
He who is above all is below God. (Whatever level a person has attained in
life, he cannot out do God).
>>Zuma lo nya kingbagba wun jin dansun à.
Translation: The backward movement of a
ewe is not out of fear. (Avoiding confrontation is not an act of cowardice but
a preparation to face the challenge).
Examples of Idioms
The following
are some interesting idiomatic expressions:
>>
Enya à zhe edeko nyagban
This
thing had turned into a chest wrapper.
Meaning: Enya na à kuku / Enya gbako (An old thing)
>> Mi sa eci sa egwa mi tun émí à
I
just cultivated the yams, but my hands cannot get to the oil.
Meaning: Nyana kagbo eza tun à na (What one cannot do or what is above one’s
reach).
>>Edzanzhi è ni enyà
The
drummers have started drumming
Meaning: Madan è gun eza (Someone is hungry). It is a known fact that
sometime, when one is hungry, it might seem as if he is having running stomach
which sometime produces sounds.
>>A dan bo
Translation:
They are around
Meaning: Madan
è gun eza (one is hungry)
6.0 Discussing the Similarities and the Difference
It
is very important to critically put things where they belong by clearly
analyzing the differences and similarities between Eganmagan and Egancìn.
Virtually, a proverb has some common features:
i.
Folk
wisdom
ii.
Literal
meaning – its face/plain meaning
iii.
Figurative
meaning – slightly hidden, understanding the message might sometimes require a simple
explanation.
iv.
Use
of grammatical devices that help make them to be more memorable which include
strong imagery, metaphor, alliteration, rhyme, parallel structure, repetition
of key words or phrases, and clichés.
Likewise, every idiomatic expression has
almost the same characteristics or features as a proverb with one or two
distinct ones:
i.
Mostly
a phrase made up of few words i.e. mostly an incomplete sentence.
ii.
Figurative
meaning that is heavily hidden. They are very intense; as such broader
explanation is required to understand it.
Like
idioms, proverbs often have a meaning that is greater than the meaning of the
individual words put together, but in a different way than idioms. The literal
meaning of an idiom usually does not make sense, and idioms can be almost
impossible to understand unless you have learned or heard them before. For
instance, when one compares a proverb:
>>Koti
na è wu nangi na, wun gá nankozhi è la lo ègizhi ò (A tick that
kills a sheep is what the cattle graze with.)
Explanation: The strong will always survive the
worst situations.
With an
idiom:
>>
Eba à wòná (Everywhere is hot)
Meaning:
Éwó à cinbo / Éwó danbo à (Lack of
money/ there is no money)
One observes that the literal
meaning of the proverb and idiom does not makes full sense on their own, until one
applies their broader meanings to understand their real points.
Again, an idiom is an
expression that can be understood only as a whole and not by analyzing its
constituent parts. For example, if one knows what ‘A’(to) ‘la’(crush) ‘yaka’(pepper) mean, that will not help
it understand that ‘to crush pepper’ means ‘to eat.’
The Issue of Idiomatic Proverbs
A proverb is a brief piece of "folk wisdom"
(Mieder, 2008). Typically, one complete sentence, it expresses some form of
advice; many people can quote it exactly, but it is not known where it came
from originally. It
may or may not be idiomatic, but it expresses succinctly some form of
philosophy, folk wisdom or advice. However, when proverbs contain some
idiomatic features they are referred to as ‘idiomatic proverbs.’ For instance:
>>
Biyekó ù ya biyegi ba (The bigger
buttocks should give the smaller buttocks chance)
Meaning:
Dzakangi ù nakin nusa ù fedun (A
child should give an elder chance to seat).
It
is the broader meaning that expresses the wisdom embedded in the proverb that a
child should get up for an elder to seat in most situations.
Other
examples of idiomatic proverbs are:
>>Ka éná bici gunni è cefo nikin. (Literal
– ‘Even a four-legged game does sometimes fall’).
Broader
meaning: ‘No one is above mistake.’
>> A la eza
ta doko kpansanna ò
(literal - To put one on a stalk-horse).
Broader
meaning: Eza tà (To deceive one).
So, idiomatic
proverbs are proverbs that have folk wisdom entrenched in them, and they are
idioms because their meanings are hidden or too intense to understand plainly.
7.0 THE DIVIDE
ON THE USE OF EGANCÌN AND EGANMAGAN AMONG INTELLECTUALS
The literary activities on grammar
and particularly written Nupe proverbs started more than a century and a half ago.
It started specifically by Reverend Samuel Ajayi Crowther who included 29 Nupe
proverbs (written in Nupe language and translated into English with
explanations too) in his Nupe Grammar book (Crowther, 31-36.1864). Unfortunately,
he did not mention the Nupe word for a proverb in the book. All other efforts
followed till date and it has resulted into an array of silent disagreement in
the usage of these two words for a proverb, and this is manifested in the
number of published works of some scholars and intellectuals which are
categorized into three distinctive divisions as shown below:
Pro-Egancìn
Scholars
These are the scholars whose published
works shows or agreed that the word Egancìn/
gancìn/ ganchì/ gacìn/ means a proverb. An attempt have been made to
understand what these words mean in Nupe language, and one instance was
illustrated in the field works of S. F. Nadal while at Ilorin on August 24,
1936 where he mentioned an encounter with some Nupe people, and he sought for
explanation of certain words which revealed a degree of ignorance of what a
proverb means to him. He jotted, “Ecin
and Gacin I ask about ecin... None of them can tell me any.
For, they say ecin are told by dzakangizi
only. When you grow up you don't hear them anymore, and forget them. What,
then, are the stories or tales of the adult ? They tell gacin (proverbs and riddles!). But nevertheless they can't tell me
any gacin either. For ‘not everybody
knows them’ well enough...”(Blench, 225.2006). Thus, other intellectuals in
this group are:
-
A.
W. Banfield in his Nupe Dictionary
in two volumes of over 13,000 words.
-
A. W. Banfield in his
translated books of Psalms and Proverbs (part of the Old Testament of the
Bible) into Nupe, titled Zabura tò Gạ̀cìṇẓì (Psalms
and Proverbs).
-
Nupe
Bible Translation Committee that translated the whole Bible into Nupe
specifically the ‘Book of Proverbs’ translated as Gạ̀cìṇẓì in 1953. The
Committee included people like A. W. Banfield, I. W. Sherk, F. Merryweather, A. E.
Ball, and C. H. Daintree.
Pro-Eganmagan
Intellectuals
These are thinkers
who used Eganmagan as the title of
their proverb books with the agreement that the word correctly defined a
proverb in the language:
-
A.
W. Banfield in his Published proverbs book -
Gạ̀mạgạ̀ nyá Nupe – (Nupe Proverbs) translated into
English. It is a collection of 623 proverbs.
Examples
of proverbs in that book:
i)
Bolanci è la ewun zhe etsan ò: (Nupe Language)
Translation: A weak
person turns a quarrel into laughter. (i.e., he can't fight it out.)
ii)
Cintara wuryagi kun dinni nya à, a ci ba ù nya
dinni nance à: (Nupe Language)
Translation: The goat's
tail that is not long enough to switch flies, should not be cut off to make a
fly -switch (i.e., if he cannot support himself he cannot support others).
-
Isyaku
Bala Ibrahim in his proverbs book - Eganmaganzhi
Nupe (Nupe Proverbs)’, over a thousand (1000) proverbs with English
translation and explanations.
Pro-Both Words Scholars
The
intellectuals believed the two words mean the same thing. We have people like:
-
Jacob
Kotsu Alhassan Busu produced an excellent Nupe Proverbs in Audio which he
titled Ganmaganzhi be Gancìnzhi in
2003.
-
Ambassador
Solomon Adama Yisa in his recent Nupe Heritage Dictionary (Eganyekpe
Nupe).
He defined Ganchin as a ‘proverb, adage, saying,
maxim,’ and in another word Gancinzhi
- he described it as ‘the book of proverbs in the Nupe translation of the Holy
Bible.’ (Yisa, 253: 2013). In another place, he defined ganmagan as an ‘proverb, adage, saying,’ (Yisa, 255.2013).
-
A.
W. Banfield could also be said to belong to this group as he had his footprints
in either of the divide.
8.0 CONCLUSION
However, the use of morphology has
enabled us understand the grammatical structures of these two words thus
improved our understanding that Eganmagan
is different from Egancìn despite the
fact that they have similar features, and that using them interchangeably or as
synonym is erroneous and can however have significant negative effect on the
language and its speakers.
This debate has just been
stirred, and it is important that it should not end with this write up, because
the main purpose of writing it in the first place is to trigger more and more
debates on the subject which will enable us have clearer understanding of the usage
of these words which is better for the language and its speakers.
9.0 REFERENCES:
Alhassan, Jacob Kotsu Busu. Ganmaganzhi be Gancìnzhi (A Nupe
Proverbs Audio Tape). Busu, Lavun Local Govt., Niger State on November 05,
2003.
Banfield, A. W. (1914).
Dictionary of the Nupe Language: Volume I (Nupe – English). Shonga: The Niger
Press.
Banfield, A. W. & Macintyre, J. L. (1915) A Grammar of the Nupe Language, Together
with a Vocabulary. London: Richard Clay & Sons Limited.
Banfield, A. W. (1916).
Dictionary of the Nupe Language: Volume II (English – Nupe). Shonga: The Niger
Press.
Banfield, A. W. (1916). Gạ̀mạgạ̀ nyá Nupe (Nupe
Proverbs). Shonga: The Niger Press.
Banfield, A. W.
(1920). Zabura tò Gạ̀cìṇẓì. (Psalms
and Proverbs – Part of the Old Testament into Nupe).
Blench,
Roger. S.F. NADEL: The Field Diaries of
an Anthropologist in Nigeria 1935-36. May 2006.
Crowther,
Reverend Samuel Ajayi (1864). A Grammar
and Vocabulary of the Nupe Language. London: Church
Missionary House.
Holmes, David. Idioms and Expressions
http://www.pdfbook.co.ke/details.php?title=Idioms%20and%20Expressions&author=David%20Holmes&category=Language&eid=30652&type=Book&popular=7 (Accessed
September 15, 2013)
Holy
Bible - New International Version (NIV) (1984). Nairobi: International
Bible Society.
Ibrahim, I. B.
(2009) Eganmaganzhi Nupe (Nupe
Proverbs), over a thousand (1000) proverbs). Minna: Gandzo Enterprises.
Litafi Lilici: Alikowoli Gbako to Alikowoli Woro (The Holy
Bible – 1953). London: British and Foreign Bible Society.
Marlett,
Stephen A (2001). An Introduction to
Phonological Analysis. North Dakota: Summer Institute
of Linguistics.
Mieder, Wolfgang (2008) ‘Proverbs
Speak Louder Than Words’: Folk Wisdom in Art, Culture, Folklore, History,
Literature and Mass Media. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated
Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary (7th Edition,
2005). London: Oxford University Press.
Yisa, Solomon Adama (2013). Nupe Heritage Dictionary (Eganyekpe Nupe), Minna: Kochita Resources
Limited.
